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Got some new toys here at Synth-Studio.com

First, we have the Electro-Voice RE27 Microphone, that my family was amazing enough to get me for my birthday (March 12)! Sure, it’s probably a bit overkill given what I currently do here. But, those of you that know me, know, that I have a tendency to always go for the absolute best hardware I can get my hands on.

Anyway, I was previously using a Shure PG58 microphone that I had picked up years ago for like $60. I was happy enough at that time to just be able to talk to people. The problem was, I pretty much had to swallow the thing to get decent pickup when speaking at a normal volume. That mic was just not designed to be used for recording casual speech. Also, it subsequently just picked up too much room noise, further drowning out my attempts to communicate with my friends.

So, I started doing some research, and asked some of my friends what they were using. For a while I was seriously considering the RØde NT1-A. While that mic does sound fantastic, and is priced well, I saw some video reviews of it in action and felt it just wouldn’t work for me, how I wanted to use it. I came across Mark Jensen’s (newmediagear.com) video review of the RE20 and RE27 and was sold the second I saw him demonstrate the Proximity Effect, or lack thereof of the RE-20/27.

Long story short, the Electro-Voice RE27 is an excellent microphone, and I plan to use it a lot in the future.

Moving on, I also got a new MIDI Controller Keyboard, the M-Audio Axiom 61. So far, this thing is great! I was very surprised to discover that it has Channel Aftertouch! I was even more surprised that my old D-550’s support it! This has opened a whole new chapter of Roland D-50 amusement for me, which I surely will post about in the near future.

Also, I am posting this update from a hotel room, as I’m currently supporting my father who is running in a 100 mile race! Go Dad!

Anyway, I’m not really happy with how my laptop and USB Audio Interface is recording the mic, there’s some extra noise I had to filter out that hurts the quality a bit. Maybe I turned the gain too high? I’m still learning how to really use this mic both at home and on the go. So I expect things to only get better as time marches forward. 🙂